I can give it all back to you
by Corwin1
Summary: Why doesn't Harry kill Voldemort, why does he disappear and who is the mysterious girl watching from the shadows? Will Ginny come back and whara does Neville fit into the picture?
1. Prologue: The final battle

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters created by JK Rowling or anything else that might belong to her.  
  
I can give it all back to you  
  
-Prologue-  
  
The great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry buzzed and hummed with magic, powerful magic. It was the day of the final battle and the side of the light was one small step away from victory. Everyone important was there. Albus Dumbeldore, wounded but still standing, Severus Snape, with his wand pointed to the forehead of Lucius Malfoy. Draco Malfoy lay unconscious on the floor from being hit by a curse thrown at him by his own father. Hermione Granger was kneeling by his side, casting healing spell after healing spell to stop him from dying. Ginny, Fred and George Weasley was standing side by side with Harry Potter who was facing the Dark Lord with an exhausted but satisfied smirk on his lips.  
  
The casualties of the war had been great and many good men and women had been lost. Ron Weasley had been hit by a killing curse meant for Harry Potter. He had died protecting his best friend. Neville Longbottom was nowhere to be seen, he was presumed to be dead. Sirius Black and Remus Lupin had not survived the first attack. They had fought on the front line and had it not been for them, Albus Dumbeldore would not have been alive. The list could go on and on about bravery and losses but that would indeed obstruct the telling of the events next to occur in the Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  
  
Everything was deadly calm, Hermione had stopped chanting healing spells, and there were no sounds of battle from outside, not a soul dared to move. Harry looked at the wounded Dark Lord sprawled out before him and stopped smiling. He took a step forward and studied his life long enemy closely. Crimson eyes looked back at him, the expression in them were such a mixture of emotions that it was impossible to read them. The feared Dark Lord was light built, almost skinny and his high cheekbones and pointed chin made him look quite snake like indeed.  
  
"I have decided not to kill you." Harry said. You could hear everyone in the room tense at those words, Dumbeldore managed to twinkle in spite of his quite severe wounds. Severus Snape glared at the Boy Who Lived and you could see the curiosity grow in the eyes of Lord Voldemort. "I don't think that you deserve to die after everything you've done." Harry once again took a brief pause and looked the Dark Lord in the eyes.  
  
No one noticed a pair of green eyes, just as green as Harry's, watching and smiling approvingly from the shadows  
  
"Do tell me." Voldemort said, amusement tracing his words.  
  
"I have found a nifty little curse I have decided to use on you instead. I am sure it would have been placed among the unforgivables if the Ministry had known it existed. You see, what I am about to do to you is probably the worst thing that could happen to a wizard or witch, especially one as powerful as yourself." As he finished that sentence Harry turned to Lucius, capturing his cold grey eyes. "Go and kneel by your Master, Lucius, you will receive the same fate as he."  
  
On the other side of the room Draco had woken up and he was now watching everything with great interest. For so long his mind had been set on following the Dark Lord, just as his father did, but he had in the last minute turned to Harry and convinced him that he wanted to help the side of the light. It was with mixed feelings he watched his father kneel beside Lord Voldemort to meet his fate. Just a few months earlier he would have jumped up in spite of his wounds and tried to stop Harry from what he was doing. Now, he just watched and waited, waited to see what was going to happen, for no one but Harry seemed to know what that was.  
  
No one but Harry did know, except for one person. The person to whom the sparkling emerald eyes no one seemed to notice watching from the shadows, belonged to.  
  
Harry raised his wand above his hand and started chanting in a language that had never before been spoken in the halls of Hogwarts. It was an ancient language and as he felt his voice grow stronger he could sense the powerful magic he had set in motion. The sensation grew stronger for every word and soon Harry felt the rush of power that meant he should set the magic in motion. A faint green glow started surrounding him, he moved his wand in a circular movement and pointed it at the Dark Lord and Lucius. The one in the spell word that could be understood by the spectators fell from his lips with ease, but also with a power in which no wizard or witch had used that particular word.  
  
"Accio"  
  
There was a flash of light tinted with the same green colour that was produced by the killing curse. A sound that resembled phoenix song rang through the air and then everything became very dark and very quiet. Slowly the light returned to the room and what was there was not expected by anyone. On the floor lay a panting Harry Potter, wand still clutched in his hand. Before him lay two men, just four or five years older than himself, one blonde and one with jet black hair. The latter very much resembled Harry. The men were both unconscious. Ginny Weasley was the first to break the silence.  
  
"Harry, what have you done? You made them young again!" There was panic in her voice, but Harry looked at her and smiled a smile happier than he could ever remember smiling before.  
  
"It worked." He said. "Sweet, wonderful Ginny, It actually worked." He started laughing and crying at the same time. He could feel the looks of the others in the room and he tried to bring himself together. He rose to his feet and turn to face them, still crying as he started to explain.  
  
"I. The spell I used allowed me to put so much power in one word that I could do almost anything, once. What I have done with our."He paused for a brief second." .friends here is to take their magic. They have become squibs. Why they lost some years in the process I am not sure of but." The world started to spin inside Harry's head. He had lost a lot of power by using the spell and now he was going to black out. He apparated.  
  
The girl in the shadows with the green eyes apparated the second after her little brother did.  
  
---------------- So, what do you all think? Shall I continue the story? I want to, I have the next chapter pretty much planned out. Please read and review for me. It would mean so much to hear what you think since this is my first attempt at Harry Potter fiction. 


	2. Prologue: Awakenings

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters created by JK Rowling or anything else that might belong to her.  
  
I can give it all back to you  
  
-The waking of the sleeping beauties-  
  
"Harry?"  
  
"Where did he go?"  
  
"Mister Potter!"  
  
"Harry!"  
  
Everyone was confused and a bit upset by what had just happened. No one had just yet understood that Harry had apparated away just before he fainted. They had just seen him start to fall only to disappear in mid air. Dumbeldore interrupted the fruitless calling for the missing hero by clearing his throat. His voice sounded old and very fragile.  
  
"I will have to ask you all to stop searching for young mister Potter for a moment and think about what he said just before he left."  
  
"He said that the Dark Lord and Mister Malfoy have become squibs. Is that possible, sir?" Everyone was a bit surprised to hear Hermione's voice. She had been very quiet during the whole event, only opening her mouth to cast healing spells on Draco. It was not surprising, however, that such a question came from her.  
  
"I think it is quite possible for such a thing to have happened, especially considering the power in the spell Harry used."  
  
"But what will we do with them when they wake up?" A reasonable question asked by the potions master. "Surely they can not stay here Albus, but we can't just let them go either!"  
  
"No, Severus, you are right, we can not let them go."  
  
At that moment everyone turned to look at the two men lying on the floor. They had started to wake up. The former Dark Lord was the first to open his eyes. Lucius just whimpered in his sleep and moved a bit. The eyes were no longer red, but a deep, smoky green colour. He focused and lifted his wand. He looked at it and then he looked at Albus.  
  
"What did he do to me?" He was trying to sound forceful, but when he heard the youthfulness in his voice he just sounded confused. "What did he do to me?" He repeated with little bit more force.  
  
"He, to put it in his own words, took your magic." Albus replied calmly. Voldemort's eyes wandered from person to person in the room with a blank expression and then his head fell to his chest.  
  
"Took my magic, he took my magic. I can't feel it anymore. Empty." He mumbled quietly. "I have nothing anymore" he said a bit louder. "My magic made me who I was, my magic made me Lord Voldemort. Now I am nothing." He looked up, tears forming in his eyes for the first time in 30 years. "You can call me Tom Riddle now." No one had noticed Lucius waking up; everyone's eyes were fixed on the former Dark Lord, now broken. Lucius reached out his hand and gently touched his master's shoulder. The man leant in to the touch and fell asleep once again.  
  
"What do you plan to do with us?" He simply asked, eyes flicking from Albus to Severus, to his son and back to Albus again. He completely ignored the others, as if they didn't exist. "You, Albus of all people, should know that I'd rather die than be a squib for the rest of my life and when I say that I think I speak for. Tom too. " His voice was filled with venom and hatred, but there was something else behind it, something almost desperate.  
  
"I know mister Malfoy, I know, but I don't think Harry didn't kill you just so you could do it yourselves. I plan to keep you alive." The twinkle in Albus Dumbeldore's eyes was back with full force. Then he coughed and winced and almost fell only to be caught by Severus.  
  
"Albus, I think we all need some rest. Most of us need to go to the hospital wing as well. Is it still intact?"  
  
"Yes, Severus, you are right of course, but I am afraid that the only part of the castle that is still safe enough to rest in is the dungeons."  
  
So, they all went down to the dungeons. They decided that the potions master's quarters would be the most comfortable since they had several fireplaces and furniture other than desks, bookcases and chairs. Severus took the lead followed by Hermione and Draco, Fred and George followed, levitating the soundly sleeping Tom Riddle between them. After them walked Lucius, closely followed by Ginny. She had her wand drawn just in case. She didn't trust Lucius even now that he seemed to be powerless. She would never trust him again after everything he had done to her family and friends. It was his Killing Curse that had hit Ron.  
  
It was a quiet walk, there wasn't much to say at the moment and nobody felt like talking. Surely, the light side had won, but Harry Potter was gone and Hogwarts was rendered almost unrecognisable. There had been so many deaths the last few hours that it hurt even trying to count them. Ginny thought of everyone she had lost and she realized that she wanted to be as far from England and all that reminded her of her life there as possible. She silently promised herself that she would leave as soon as possible, maybe for the States. She'd always wanted to visit America.  
  
When they got to the potions master's quarters they quickly organized beds for everyone and Hermione who was a mediwitch in training started to heal what she could on those who needed it most. That is Albus and Tom Riddle. At first she was very reluctant to touch the latter at all, but eventually she patched him up, if only to have Lucius stop glaring at her. By the end of the evening she was exhausted and quickly fell asleep in an armchair beside Albus bed. Eventually everyone else fell asleep too, everyone but Ginny. She couldn't fall asleep for the life of her. She just kept twisting and turning and get tangled in the sheets. There was only one thing on her mind and that was to leave, to go far, far away from everything she knew. So she got up, very quietly not to disturb anyone, wrote a note that she left on her pillow, gathered some things she thought she might need and left.  
  
Well outside the cold clear night hit her. The stars were glittering and the moon was unusually bright, not quite full though. She took a deep breath and started walking towards Hogsmeade. She drew her cloak tighter around her body as she saw the tents put up by survivors, probably tents where they healed their wounded and rested their sore bodies. She didn't want them to see her, she didn't want them to recognize her. She wanted to disappear.  
  
The next morning in the dungeons, Fred and George awoke first. They were also the first to notice that Ginny were gone and it didn't take them long to find the note on her pillow. Once they hade read it several times each they shook some life into Draco, Hermione and Severus. They let the others sleep, Albus since he needed it and the former dark wizards since they really didn't like them. They all sat by the kitchen table when George read the letter out loud.  
  
"Good morning everyone,  
  
I hope you've slept well. I haven't, actually I couldn't sleep at all because I had some thoughts that wouldn't leave me alone. As you might have noticed I am gone, and don't worry I'm fine. Now I guess you want to know why I left. I'm not sure if you'll understand, but I am going to tell you anyway. I don't have anything in England that makes me want to stay here (no offence, you all have a place in my heart) so I decided to leave. It's just that everything here reminds me of everyone I've lost and it huts and scares me. I think that if I left it all behind for a while it will be easier once I decide to come back. It doesn't make any sense at all does it? But it feels right and it is really all that is on my mind right now. It is simply something I have to do. I will keep in touch and, please, don't worry about me I'll be fine.  
  
Love,  
  
Ginny Weasley  
  
PS. I took some things (healing potions, some food, etc) that I thought I might need. I hope you don't mind Professor Snape. DS."  
  
"That's it?" Hermione asked when George had finished reading. She had a concerned look on her face.  
  
"Yes, that's all." George replied. "Poor little sister, sure hope you will be fine." He mumbled.  
  
"She will be Georgiekins, she's strong, she's strong." Fred said in a comforting tone. He was trying to calm himself just as much as he was trying to calm his brother, but he could already feel the tears burn in his eyes.  
  
Only Draco looked up when his father came in to the room but he quickly looked away and went to make some coffee. Not until Lucius cleared his throat did the others notice him. Fred and George looked at him through blurry tear filled eyes, as did Hermione. Severus face was blank but he didn't bother to hide the look of hateful pity in his eyes. No one said anything, Fred, George and Hermione went back to comforting each other, Draco made breakfast and Severus left to check on Albus. Lucius didn't move, he just stood there, watching them get along with their business. Eventually he asked if he could have some coffee. Hermione handed him a mug and told him to help himself. First he was startled, he wasn't used to doing things himself, but he figured things would be different from now on.  
  
Later in the day, everyone, even Tom and Lucius, had gathered by Albus bed, which actually was Severus bed, but he had let the old man have it since he was injured and well, old. Everyone was awake and aware of what had happened the last few hours. Ginny had left them. They all accepted this, what else could they do, but they also missed her, some more than others. Fred and George had been to the battlefield and had some news about survivors and just how much damages that had been done to the surrounding area.  
  
"As far as we know all the younger students are ok. Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonogal are bringing them here as soon as possible. They will stay in the dungeons too." Fred said.  
  
"From the battlefields they have found a total of 156 survivors from both sides. The number is still rising, though. They hope to find at least 50 more people that they will be able to save." George continued.  
  
"But only 156? There were so many, do you mean they are all dead?" Hermione asked with disbelief in her voice.  
  
"Wars are never easy my dear child." Before Albus had the time to say anything else, Hermione had turned around and was now pointing her wand at Tom Riddle.  
  
"This is all your fault! All my friends are gone and it is all your fault! Thousands of people have died and you just sit here, alive." The last word she spit out as if it was the most disgusting thing she had ever tasted. Her eyes were flaming with rage and her hands were shaking. She stared Tom Riddle in the eyes, but saw nothing but emptiness.  
  
"Believe me little girl," He said with a voice deader than any of the bodies on the battlefield. "I would give anything to just drop down dead right here and right now. Your little hero was clever enough to take away the one thing that would break me. I am nothing now. Do what you want with me." The last sentence was said in an almost challenging tone, as if Tom dared her to kill him. She got a grip of herself and lowered her wand.  
  
"You will live, Tom Riddle." She said "Now that your body is young again we will keep it alive for as long as we can. You will live and you will be miserable." She whispered the last words and silently turned back to Albus where he lay, now talking to Severus and Draco.  
  
It was decided that the former dark wizards were to be moved to a safe house along with Severus and Draco whom had agreed to look after them. Hogwarts was going to be rebuilt even if it took years and years, it was some day in the future going to be a place of learning again. Albus recovered rather quickly and soon he was ordering people around the ruins of his old school, telling them where to build and where raze. It was going to take time. Draco and Severus had contact with Albus every evening through the fireplace in the safe house about Tom's "condition". He seemed to remain blank whatever they said to him. He simply didn't respond, but he was conscious enough to take care of himself. Lucius was mostly quiet, but he didn't seem to have taken his becoming a squib just as hard, or in the same way as his master.  
  
During all this time there were no news about Harry Potter. That is until a large black crow landed in front of Albus Dumbeldore when he was eating his lunch a sunny Saturday afternoon.  
  
-------------  
  
Nice cliffie I did there, don't you think? I love cliffies. Hopefully they will keep the readers interested. What do you think? I am dying to know. Shall I continue? You decide. Aaaaaagh, the next chapter is probably on its way anyway. But, a little encouragement is never out of place. 


	3. Prologue: What happened to Harry?

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters created by JK Rowling or anything else that might belong to her.  
  
I can give it all back to you  
  
-Whatever happened to Harry Potter? -  
  
In a large manor on the English countryside a young boy and a girl just a few years older appeared in a small room connected to the entrance hall. The boy fell down on the floor the minute he got there and the girl lent down to help him as soon as she appeared, just a second later. The boy was Harry Potter, saviour of the wizarding world and the girl was his sister that no one except the two of them knew existed. You could quite easily see the similarities between them, the same emerald green eyes, the same pale skin and delicate figure, the dark curly, wild hair and long the lashes. You could have mistaken them for twins if it wasn't for the differences in height (Harry was quite a bit taller than his sister) and the scar that marked Harry's forehead. You could also see if you really looked that the girl looked a few years older than her brother, which indeed she was. The two youths had the same mother but their fathers were different, one was known, that was James Potter, Harry's father, and the other, well, no one really knew who he was, not even his own daughter. No one had ever had the chance to find out, it was a well-kept secret.  
  
The girl, Lucinda was her name, helped Harry up and supported him as they made their way to the nearest bedroom. There weren't any on the first floor so she levitated him up the stairs and to a large room decorated in green and black. She put him on the large four-poster bed and started to examine his body for any major wounds. She didn't find any, Harry was just exhausted from using the powerful spell he had performed on Riddle and his companion. She was amazed that he had managed to apparate to the manor in the state he had been. The boy was amazingly powerful, but then again, so was she. She healed some minor wounds and bruises and then she left to let her little brother sleep. He had fallen asleep almost as soon as she began to levitate him up the stairs and she had a feeling he would not wake up until his magic resources was fully restored. He would sleep for at least 3 days.  
  
Those three days would give Lucinda time to think about what had happened the last busy months. She had contacted Harry the month before he graduated from Hogwarts and she had slowly gained his trust. At first he hadn't believed her and was going to tell Dumbeldore about the whole thing. He had thought she was a Death Eater that was trying to get to him. She convinced him not to by sending him the only memory she had of their mother. A picture of her at the age of seventeen in which she was holding a little baby with eyes just as green as her. The baby was Lucinda.  
  
Harry had done all sorts of things to control the validity of the picture and found that there was nothing wrong with it. Slowly he started listening to what Lucinda had to say and eventually he believed her, at least so much that he would agree to meet her. He had told none of his friends about their corresponding so they had decided to meet during a Hogsmeade weekend. That way Harry could tell his friends that he was going to stay in the castle to study to the N.E.W.T:s while they went to the little town. When they had left Harry had snuck out of the castle to meet Lucinda.  
  
And what a meeting it had been. Harry had been wearing his invisibility cloak to the meeting point so Lucinda had not seen him when he arrived, though she had felt his presence as soon as he came closer. Harry must have felt it too because as soon as he had seen her he had just took of the cloak and stared at her. Then he had mover closer had touched her hair very gently. Green eyes had met green and Lucinda had felt a connection so strong it felt like they could move mountains together.  
  
"I believe you, I believe everything you have told me." Harry had said and they had jus continued to stare into each other's eyes for what felt like the longest time. Eventually Lucinda had taken Harry's hand and led him to a large flat stone where they could sit down and talk. She told him her story and he told his. They talked about what was to come, they both had a feeling Voldemort would attack sometime in the following year and they both knew that Harry would play a large part in the upcoming war. Harry was to receive extra training from Dumbeldore and the other teachers in order to defeat Voldemort, but they decided that Lucinda would train him as well. She had extensive knowledge of ancient magic and knew quite a lot about the Dark Arts. Both she and Harry looked forward to his training.  
  
After that first meeting they kept in touch by owl post through the remainder of the school year. Harry already had too much to think about with the N.E.W.T:s and his apparation test coming up and he didn't need another teacher nagging him to do his homework. Lucinda had a lot to do too. She had to set a training room for Harry in order and she had to find the appropriate books in her quite extensive library before he started his training. They had also agreed that they should have his lessons in the mansion and that would indeed be much easier once Harry had learned to apparate.  
  
Harry had stayed in Hogwarts after graduation and his training had started almost immediately. The teachers were working him hard, but it was nothing like what Lucinda was doing. She had decided to get as much work done in as little time as possible. They only had the weekends to work and there was so much to work on. They had started out simple with some shielding spells that Harry had learned to master to perfection amazingly fast. They had quickly moved on to more difficult things, which meant more advanced Dark Arts and ancient magic. It was only weeks before Voldemort's first attack that Harry had found the spell that he had used to take the Dark Lord's magic during a late night reading session in Lucinda's library.  
  
After some more research about it they had decided that it was worth a shot and Harry had spent all the time he could find to memorize the words and the movements. He had practiced on rats and other rodents, but mostly rats, Lucinda understood why, and he had gotten quite good at it. But they still weren't sure how it would work on a human being and they had jus started to test the spell on a bit larger magical creatures when on, very fittingly, Halloween, the first attack came.  
  
All Lucinda could do was watch Harry and his friends fight for all they were worth. She kept in the shadows and out of everyone's way. The only time she had interfered with anything was when she saved Neville Longbottom's life. The poor boy had been surrounded by three Death Eaters and they were about to cast the Killing Curse on him when she decided to make them all fly right in the arms of the giant squid, who apparently was on the side of the light. Neville hadn't known what happened, but he had thankfully ran as fast as he could outside Hogwarts apparation wards and apparated away. Yes, even he had passed the test. The only thing he left behind was his right shoe.  
  
When Harry had performed the spell that had taken the Dark Lord's magic, Lucinda had watched and smiled. She had just known it would work; she had felt how sure Harry had been in his words and in his mind. She too had felt the incredible surge of power just before he released the spell and she too had known it had worked before anyone else had known what Harry had done and when he apparated she had known where he went and followed.  
  
Now she sat in a large black leather couch in front of the fire in her own bedroom, decorated in black and dark red colours, nothing like the one of the Gryffindor house. She was pleased with the way things had turned out and she had a feeling that they could only get better. She poured a glass of vine to celebrate. Silently she proposed a toast to Harry and the great performance ha had made earlier. She knew that Harry would not want to go back to Hogwarts and his life there immediately and she wondered in her mind what he was going to do when he got better. She knew that he was not finished with Voldemort and that twit Lucius Malfoy. She wondered what Dumbeldore and the others back at Hogwarts would do with them and how they were coping with Harry leaving them. After a while her thoughts went around in circles and she was beginning to fell slightly dizzy from the wine and the exhaustion after a day of practicing "constant vigilance". She went to bed and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.  
  
Next morning when she woke up it was rather late, too late in her opinion. She took a quick shower and went for breakfast in the kitchen. The house elves provided her with hot black coffee and toast. She had actually managed to convince them that she didn't need to eat more than that, not something you accomplish every day. The Daily Prophet had arrived and lay at the doorstep. She picked the paper up to see if they had written anything about the battle yesterday. They had written a lot actually and they had more accurate information than she'd thought they would have. Of course they had written about "bravery and loss" in a very poetic manner and of course it said that Harry Potter finally had defeated the Dark Lord, but it didn't say how or that the Dark Lord now was a squib and still very much alive. She hadn't expected the paper to find that out, but she wouldn't have been all that surprised if they had. When she had read it all she put the paper away, went to get her very own invisibility cloak and apparated outside the Hogwarts grounds.  
  
She came there just in time to see how Fred and George left one of the tents after talking to the survivors and the wounded. She followed them to the castle and down the dungeons. When they went in to Severus quarters she slinked in after them just before the door closed not to set off any alarms or wards. She listened to the conversation held beside Dumbeldore's bed. She had a hard time keeping quiet all the time because the damp air made her throat itchy and she had to fight back the urge to clear her throat every five minutes. When everyone had stopped talking she sneaked out again and just as she had thought the door was only warded for things coming in and not for things going out.  
  
When she got home she thought about what it would mean that Tom and Lucius stayed with Severus and Draco. She decided it would be a good thing because the four of them already knew each other somewhat even though they in the last battle had been on different sides. She thought I t was better that it was them than that it was Hermione or Fred and George that got the mission. She had a feeling Severus and Draco wouldn't gloat or try to rub it in that the two others had become squibs. Hermione was too angry, Fred and George were too hurt and Ginny was gone. She wondered where Ginny had gone. Harry had talked a lot about the redheaded girl the last month before the war and Lucinda wanted to see what she was like.  
  
The rest of the day and a large part of the night she spent in the library reading a heavy book on ancient charms she had just recently achieved. It was relaxing to think about something that didn't have anything to do with the war or anything related. The war was over. She went to bed around 02.30 in the morning and half an hour or so later she was sleeping soundly.  
  
She awoke the next morning of the feeling that someone was watching her. She opened her eyes and looked around the room and saw Harry standing in the doorway, smiling tiredly at her. He looked lie he had just got out of bed himself. She smiled back.  
  
"You shouldn't be awake yet." She said. "You should be asleep for at least another day, go back to bed Harry."  
  
"I don't want to and besides, I'm not tired. How long have I been asleep anyway?" He looked a bit confused as he asked the last question.  
  
"Two nights and one and a half day, but that shouldn't be enough to restore all the power you lost doing that spell." Lucinda said concerned, but she was more confused. Harry looked well, how could he have recovered so fast? A normal person would have slept for another day at least. Harry was obviously not a normal person, but she already knew that didn't she?  
  
"Yet here I am. So, what's going on out in the world, or Hogwarts more specifically?"  
  
They went down and ate breakfast in the dining room this morning. Harry ate like he had starved for a year while Lucinda tried to explain everything she had found out while he was asleep in as much detail as possible. Harry just ate and nodded every once in a while. When he was finished eating and She was finished talking he rested his elbows on the table and his chin on his hands and asked:  
  
"And what will we do now, dear sister?"  
  
"You do want to talk to Tom again, right?"  
  
"Yes I do, but not yet. I thought I'd have a look around the world first. I was thinking that you might want to befriend the dear Dark Lord while I do that for a few months."  
  
"Just what makes you think that I might want to do that for you?" Lucinda said and raised an eyebrow. Actually, the thought quite appealed to her. She was indeed very curious about the man that almost had taken over wizarding England and now that he didn't look like some sort of snake-human hybrid the thought wasn't bad at all.  
  
"I know you want to, I can feel you curiosity from way over here you twit." Harry said in a mocking tone.  
  
"All right, you got me, but how do you plan to get me close to him?" Lucinda was now very anxious to hear what Harry had to say. She was convinced he had a plan. "And when did you have time to plan it?" she added.  
  
"It's amazing how well you can think when you are as close to unconsciousness as I have been the last two days, and I have had time to think about this ever since we decided that the spell might actually work to take his magic with. I have had quite a lot of time to play with the thought." Lucinda hadn't thought of that. Harry continued. "We have to convince Dumbeldore to let you move the whole party here, Snape and Draco too. I don't think that will be too hard if we send him a letter and explain that it is on my request and that you can be trusted. He'll have to meet with you of course and I think it might be good if Severus and Draco met you too." Harry looked thoughtful. "Yes, that would be best. Then as long as they stay here you can do with them what you want." Lucinda got a mischievous glint in her eye. "That doesn't mean you can harm them Luce. Be nice."  
  
"Well, that sounds good. Although we should plan everything carefully before we write that letter and send it off to Dumbeldore. I want to do some research and you need to get some more rest if you want to get out in the world before they get here." With that the whole matter was decided and about a month later they sat down to write the letter to the Headmaster. Harry already had his bags packed and was ready to go as soon as they had sent it off.  
  
"Dear Headmaster Dumbeldore, My name is Lucinda Evans and I am writing firstly to tell you that Harry Potter is safe and healthy. He is standing right here beside me and he sends his warmest regards. He is just about to go "experience the world" as he puts it, but before he does that he has a request for you.  
  
Hi, Headmaster, this is Harry Potter writing. I have, as Lucinda mentioned, a small request for you. I would like for Tom Riddle and Lucius Malfoy to come and live with her in her mansion that I am currently staying at. I would also like Severus and Draco to come with them, if they agree of course. I guarantee that Lucinda is a good person and will do no harm to either Tom or Lucius (even if I think she wants to sometimes). She has made a vow to me not to harm them. I will be gone for some time, but I will come back in a not too far away future.  
  
Yours, Harry Potter  
  
I would like to meet with you, Professor Snape and young mister Malfoy regarding them staying here. It would be a pleasure to meet all of you.  
  
Sincerely, Lucinda Evans  
  
PS. You can give the reply to Eric (the crow) and he will take it to me. DS."  
  
Both Harry and Lucinda were quite pleased with how the letter turned out so they gave it to Eric and told him where to go. Harry gave Lucinda the longest hug she had ever gotten in her whole life and said he'd be in touch. She gave him a kiss on the forehead and told him to have a good time. He apparated away to somewhere new and Lucinda were left to take care of everything.  
  
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You think it was good? I certainly think so. This is the end of the prologue. Yup. Review! 


	4. Part one: Letters and Meetings

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters created by JK Rowling or anything else that might belong to her.  
  
I can give it all back to you  
  
-Meetings and Letters -  
  
The mansion seemed oddly quiet once Harry had left. It was certainly less noisy and Lucinda decided to enjoy the silence as long as it lasted. She sat down in the library with a muggle book she was reading that she had been neglecting for some time now. She decided that wait was all she could do until she got a reply from Dumbeldore and she hoped that the reply would come fast because she was easily bored when waiting for something. Patience was not one of her virtues, but as long as she had something to do it was no problem.  
  
She finished the book rather quickly, it hadn't been much left of it, so she went out in the garden to enjoy the unusually nice November weather. The sun was shining and you could actually hear some birds sing. It was simply a beautiful day. She wandered around for about an hour or so and then she stopped at the nearby lake and watched the sunbeams play on the rippled water that actually steamed from the heat. She didn't think of going back to the house until she saw the silhouette of Eric on the horizon, the Headmaster had already answered her letter and it hadn't been a whole day yet. She didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing.  
  
When she came back inside Eric was sitting on the back of one of the chairs in the dining room, waiting for her. He tilted his head and gazed at her when she came in the room as to say that she was late. Lucinda just smiled at him and took the letter attached to his leg from him. She decided not to read the letter right there. She went up to her own room and sat herself in front of the fireplace. She was a bit surprised to see that Eric had followed her. Maybe Dumbeldore had told the bird to take a reply back to him. Maybe she could hope to meet with the Headmaster sometime soon. She smiled and opened the letter.  
  
"Miss Evans I will grant your whish to have a meeting with Professor Snape, mister Malfoy and me. The meeting will be held here at Hogwarts in my office, the password will be "wine gums". Will the thenth of December 10 am be a fitting time? Let me know if not.  
  
I have to admit that I do not entirely trust you, even with mister Potter's sincere reassurances that you are on our side. I have taken the freedom to consult Professor Snape in the matter and he too is sceptical, more than me I might add. You are a complete stranger to us and it is hard to trust anyone after the things we all have lived through the last months. However, these are matters that we will have to deal with when we meet.  
  
If nothing else is said I will expect you on December 10th.  
  
Albus Dumbeldore"  
  
So, he didn't trust her. It's not like she had expected him to do so right away, but in the letter he had sounded so sceptical. She had thought it would all run smooth as a knife through butter with Harry reassuring she was one of the good guys. But, then again, he had no reason to trust her. She could have forced Harry to write his part of the letter for all he knew. She just had to prove she could be trusted when she met him. And then there was Snape. Although he was only mentioned in the letter she already disliked him. Who was he to say that she was untrustworthy? The letter hadn't even been to him and he didn't trust her. He had absolutely no reason to not trust her.  
  
Lucinda could feel herself get worked up over almost nothing and decided she had to calm down. Although she was a bit worried about the meeting. If Snape was everything Harry said he was, she would have to fight herself not to get in a fight with him. If she could get that worked up by a letter with his opinions mentioned in it, she didn't even want to imagine how she would be affected by the real thing. Maybe the irritation towards Snape lay in the family. Harry disliked him, his father did (although Lucinda wasn't related to him), Lily had done so and for all Lucinda knew her father might have done so as well. She knew that theory wouldn't hold in the end, but she wanted a rational explanation for her sudden burst of anger, triggered by one single line in a letter. It wasn't like her to burst into flames like that. It was more like Harry.  
  
That was one of the ways Harry and Lucinda was different, and probably the way that showed the most. Harry had the ever-wild Gryffindor temper, while Lucinda was more collected and calm. They were both very cunning, but Harry was more impulsive and even more impatient than his sister.  
  
Either way, Lucinda wrote a quick reply to Dumbeldore saying she would be very pleased to meet them on December 10th. she sent it off with Eric and poured herself a glass of wine. All in all it had been a good day.  
  
The time passed quickly up until the meeting with Dumbeldore. Lucinda was busy getting bedrooms for her future guests ready. She thought it would be best to count on that they would be staying in the mansion and it gave her something to do while she waited for the days to pass. On December ninth everything was ready for them to move in. Lucinda had been forced to open up some rooms that hadn't been used for years to fit the four guests in. It was really only three bedrooms that had been in use as long as she had lived in the mansion, her, Harry's and one for eventual guests. She thought it best to leave Harry's room alone. She didn't think he wanted any of the guests sleeping there, and it would be inconvenient if he came back without notice. So she had with the help of the house elves made three more rooms liveable and if she had to say it herself, she was quite pleased with how they had turned out. They all had large fireplaces with nice big sofas in front of them. The beds were big and soft and the colours of the rooms were mostly dark. All the room had bathrooms connected to them and she saw to that there were clean towels in every one of them. She had thought of decorating one of the rooms in Gryffindor colours and let chance decide which one of the four Slytherins got it. Then she decided that would be cruel and decorated all the rooms in the same manner.  
  
The next morning around nine a clock she apparated outside Hogwarts and walked up to the castle. She was surprised by how much of it had been rebuilt in so short time, but she also noted that there were many months, or maybe even years of hard work left. She looked around for a bit and then she asked a stern looking lady that she imagined would be Professor McGonogal for the way to the Headmasters office. She was shown to a partially finished tower with a smug looking gargoyle in front of the entrance to it. The gargoyle asked for the password and Lucinda said, "wine gums" just as the letter had said and it let her in. she couldn't quite make out the expression of the woman she thought to be McGonogal when she entered the tower. It was a mixture of suspicion, curiosity and something else, maybe recognition, although that couldn't have been it.  
  
There was a peculiar stair up to the door to the Headmasters office. Lucinda didn't have to move to get upwards, the stairs moved instead. She knocked on the door and waited for an answer. Instead the door flung up by itself. Lucinda took a deep breath and stepped inside the room.  
  
The moment the dark haired girl stepped into the room Tom Riddle felt more awake, more alive than he had done since that fateful night he lost his powers. She seemed to radiate some sort of power and it affected him in the oddest of ways. He shouldn't be able to feel her power at all now that he was a squib, but he did and it made him wonder if he still had some of it left. Whatever this connection that he felt meant, he would find it out.  
  
Lucinda war terribly nervous had she had to try hard not to show it as she stepped up to the Headmasters desk. The man smiled at her and it seemed sincere. She stuck out his had to him and presented herself.  
  
"Lucinda Evans, pleased to finally meet you." She smiled and hoped her nervousness didn't show. The Headmaster pointed her to a seat in front to the desk and twinkled a bit.  
  
"Pleased to meet you to, Lucinda. To your left is Professor Severus Snape and to your right is Mister Draco Malfoy." Lucinda greeted them both with a short nod. "We have agreed to meet with you to hear what you have to say. As you might understand we want to make sure that you are what you say you are and that we can trust you."  
  
"Of course." Lucinda's mind raced, how was she going to convince them that her intentions were good. She had a feeling it wouldn't be easy. She couldn't tell them about Harry being her brother. They had decided that that would be a secret for as long as possible. Therefore she couldn't tell them about her mother and show them the picture of Lily holding her as a baby. The picture had convinced Harry to trust her a little bit, but she couldn't use it on the people she now had to convince. She looked around the room and noticed that there were two more people in the room, two young men. One blonde that looked strikingly a lot like Draco and one with black hair that could have been Harry's older brother if he had had one. Tom Riddle and Lucius Malfoy she realized.  
  
She locked eyes with Tom and it felt like she knew him. She couldn't stop staring into those eyes that looked so much like hers and it was like she could almost feel what he felt, like she could do with Harry. What was going on? She could feel his confusion as well as her own and it wasn't until she felt a hand on her shoulder that she ripped her eyes away from Tom's.  
  
"Miss Evans, are you all right?" She looked into the black eyes of Severus Snape. He actually looked a bit concerned. She must look very confused. She straightened her face and let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding.  
  
"Yes, I'm fine. Why wasn't I told they would be here?" She asked. Draco answered.  
  
"We couldn't leave them alone. Tom just keep trying to kill himself and my father isn't being all that better, and it is after all them that we are discussing, it isn't more than right that they are here."  
  
"I see, well, I don't know where to start so why don't you ask any questions that you have and I will try to answer them the best I can." Lucinda hoped that she would be able to answer the questions at all. She wasn't that sure of what to expect and she had no idea of what to do if she failed to convince them. What would she say to Harry if she did? She just had to manage this without screwing up. She had to get the former dark wizards to the mansion.  
  
Dumbeldore asked the first question.  
  
"As I understand it, Harry wrote the letter to me together with you." Lucinda nodded. "How do you know him, he hasn't been able to spend much time outside school at any point besides the summers, which he spent with the Dursleys." Dumbeldore looked a bit stern, but above all curious.  
  
"I came in contact with Harry during the last term of his seventh year. It was I who contacted him because I thought I would be able to help him in his mission. At first he didn't trust my intentions and was overall very suspicious, but I convinced him not to tell anyone about me and eventually we arranged a meeting on a Hogsmeade weekend. It was during that meeting that he started to trust me and when he left school he agreed to let me train him on the weekends, alongside the training he received from you." Lucinda tried to tell them everything as accurate as possible, without mentioning her true connection to Harry. It was hard, but she thought she did pretty well. She stopped talking and waited for the next question to come. She didn't want to seem too eager, that might give the impression that she was hiding something, but on the other hand, so would leaving too much out too. The next question came from Snape.  
  
"What exactly was it you were teaching him that you think we couldn't?" His voice were very hostile and his expression even more so. He would be hard to win over. Lucinda had a feeling it couldn't be done through just words and that it would take much time. But he wasn't the person she had to convince the most. The Headmaster was.  
  
"After years of training and research I specialize in the Dark Arts," Someone drew in a deep breath and the tension in the room heightened. "but more important in my opinion, in Ancient magic, an art form far too underestimated by modern wizards. I felt that he needed to know some of these things to succeed and I must say that I was right." She put on a small, satisfied smirk and looked Snape in the eyes. Draco fired the next question.  
  
"Did you teach Potter the spell he used to.." He nodded towards Tom and Lucius.  
  
"He actually found it himself one night in my library. I was asleep and to be honest with you, I had never heard of it before. We started researching it the morning after and within a week we were testing it on rats. Harry found that particular animal very fitting." She smirked. "Quite soon we moved on to a bit larger magical creatures, but we didn't have time to go any further before the first attack came." Lucinda sighed. "We could only hope that it would work, but when Harry stood there I knew he wouldn't fail. Such power.." She seemed to drift of into her memories, but in fact it was an act. She was fully aware of everything she was doing and she was now watching the other's reactions very closely. Dumbeldore sparkled and she took that as a good sign. The younger Malfoy looked very arrogant, but she could see that he was curious. Snape was hard to read. Lucinda had always thought of herself as a good judge of character and a good reader of people's expressions, but this man simply had no expression. She could think of no other way of describing him as cold, or blank.  
  
"When did this training take place?" Asked Dumbeldore  
  
"During the weekends. Once he had learned to apparate, Harry came to the Mansion on his spare time to study in the library or practice spells with me."  
  
"Is that the same mansion that you and Harry would like to move these two?" Dumbeldore pointed towards Tom and Lucius.  
  
"Yes it is."  
  
"May I ask where it is located? I might be good to know if there is an emergency." He was asking about the Mansion. Lucinda gained some more hope. If he was asking about the Mansion, maybe he was considering letting Tom and Lucius live there.  
  
"In the countryside northwest of London. It is quite far from any major city or village." She answered. "It is connected to the floo network and you can apparate there, but only to certain rooms. The others have anti apparition wards on them."  
  
"You said before that you knew that Potter wouldn't fail when he was casting the spell. Were you here?" Draco asked.  
  
"Yes, I was here during the final battle. I only watched, I didn't want to be involved too much. I stayed close to Harry all the time in case he would need my help."  
  
"Are you saying that you were there the whole time and didn't do anything? Why, you certainly seem capable of both magic and interfering." That couldn't have come from anyone but Snape and Lucinda answered it in a challenging tone.  
  
"You, as a Slytherin should know. It wasn't my battle and therefore I stayed out of it. I only got involved as much as I had to due to my loyalty to Harry except for one time. I helped a skinny boy with a toad escape from three Death Eaters. They were about to cast the killing curse on him when I sent them flying into the lake. He seemed so out of place in the battlefield that I had to do something." She saw recognition in Snape's eyes when she talked about Longbottom. Harry had told her about the hate/hate relationship between the teacher and the student and she had figured out that the boy she had saved from the Death Eaters must have been Neville.  
  
"Why was it not your battle?" Dumbeldore asked. He now looked only curious and his eyes sparkled non-stop.  
  
"Well, I don't, to begin with, consider myself either light or dark. I don't believe you can draw lines between good or bad. It is simply a matter of perception." To this Dumbeldore nodded in understanding and Snape looked a bit more interested in what she had to say. "I have never been involved in the wizarding world because I have never really lived in it. I don't see it as my business to interfere."  
  
"You can't have grown up with muggles, not with the knowledge you say you have." Draco was perfectly right.  
  
"No I didn't grow up with muggles, but I didn't grow up in the normal wizarding society either. Let's just say that there are schools with locations more secret than Durmstang's and wards stronger than Hogwart's." Lucinda was definitely not ready to talk about her past with these people. Harry knew most of it, but far from all. She just hoped they were going to accept her answer and move on to the next question.  
  
Suddenly, and quite luckily for Lucinda, a loud cry from a crow reached their ears through an open window in the roof. Soon they could see a majestic bird coming closer and closer. It flew through the window and landed on the back of Lucinda's chair. It stretched out its leg and looked at Lucinda as if to tell her to take the letter attached to it. She took the letter and waited for the bird to fly away again. It just kept looking at her with intelligent eyes.  
  
"Do you want me to reply now?" She asked the bird. It made an approving sound and Lucinda took it as a yes. She looked around the room at the others. They had grown very quiet. Her eyes once again locked with Tom and she could once again feel that they were somehow connected. She tore away her attention from him and opened the letter.  
  
"Hey Lucinda,  
  
Have you spoken to the Headmaster yet? How did it go? I hope everything's still all right.  
  
I am not going to tell you where I am, in case anyone else reads this letter. I don't want to be found. I can, however, tell you that I am having the time of my life, even though I miss everyone terribly sometimes. Can you believe that I actually caught myself missing Professor Snape yesterday? Haha!  
  
Well, I was just writing to see if everything was okay and to say that I miss you.  
  
Be nice!  
  
Yours forever,  
  
Harry"  
  
When she had read the letter she thought for a while and then she decided that the others should see it. That might help to convince them that she was trustworthy.  
  
"It's from Harry." She said and handed over the letter to Dumbeldore. "It's to me, but I thought you might want to read it."  
  
"Thank you dear, it seems our hero is doing quite well." Dumbeldore smiled for the first time and it was a genuine smile. He handed the letter back.  
  
"Let me see it." Snape demanded. Lucinda handed the letter to him and studied the look on his face when he read it. She thought it looked a bit puzzled.  
  
"Well, it seems like his intolerable handwriting and it seems genuine in contents too." Was he saying that he believed her? "Now, don't think that I trust you, but I believe you are telling the truth, even though you are hiding something." He was and Lucinda's mood got a big boost upwards. She asked Dumbeldore if she could have a piece of paper and a quill to write a reply. He put them in front of her on the desk, but just before she started writing he said:  
  
"Don't you want to give Harry a proper reply to his questions?" Lucinda looked puzzled and he continued. "Maybe we should decide what to do before you reply to him."  
  
"Yes, that is a good idea." She answered.  
  
Dumbeldore asked Draco and Snape what they thought. Draco had nothing against moving, but Snape was reluctant to the idea. Eventually he gave in and agreed to move, but only after it had been decided that they could move back to the old safe house if anything suspicious occurred. Dumbeldore finally turned towards Tom and Lucius and asked them how they felt about it. Lucinda didn't think their answers would matter but it would be good to know what they thought.  
  
Lucius answered first. He said that he didn't care as long as he didn't have to show himself in the wizarding world. He looked so small in his new younger form, yet he managed to keep that Malfoy-ish arrogant air around him.  
  
Tom was quiet for quite some time. When everyone had given up on hearing his answer he raised his voice. It was very clear and youthful.  
  
"This will be interesting." He said.  
  
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This chapter took longer than the others. Sorry to keep you waiting. Please review or I will punish you all by sending rabid house elves to chase you all around the world. Mwahahahahaaa!! 


	5. next chapter soon

I am really trying to get the next chapter up, but it is simply very hard to write right now. I do, however, have a good idea of what will happen in the next chapter and I have started to write it, but it is as I said going slow.  
  
I have a lot on my mind and not a lot of time to write. I work all day long and when I get home I'm too tired to do anything that involves thinking. So you'll have to excuse me if it has been a long wait, but I have not given up, I assure you.  
  
Love /Corwin 


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